Tag Archives: usability

Mega IA: Thinking Outside the Box

By Georgia Otto | Published: 11.18.2009
For the November meeting of the NHUPA, I did a 10-minute talk about the effects of social media on information architecture. This blog entry provides some additional resources for anyone interested in doing further research on the topic. You can also download the original slides and handout. For those who missed the presentation, I’ll give you a [...]
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Wireframing & Prototyping Tools: Balsamiq & Friends

By Georgia Otto | Published: 11.12.2009
For last month’s meeting of the NHUPA, a number of people did short presentations and demos of a variety of wireframing and prototyping tools. I presented Balsamiq, a low-fidelity wireframing tool best used for capturing ideas quickly, keeping people focused on concepts/layout or for teaching new user experience designers about wireframing. I figured someone might find it [...]
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Can You Find the Missing Link in Target’s “Itso Builder”?

By Georgia Otto | Published: 06.8.2009
So the other day, I stumbled across a cool project called Itso Storage that IDEO did for Target some time last year. The product is the typical IDEO output: clever, practical and elegant. However, the web aspect of Itso appears to be missing an important feature. Either that or I’m blind. (Was that a bad [...]
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Samsung Memoir – Product Review with Photos

By Georgia Otto | Published: 05.18.2009
About a month ago, I bought the Samsung Memoir. The other reviews out there are mostly written from the perspective of people who are highly experienced with using smartphones, comparing them, and writing about them. This review is from the perspective of never having used a smartphone before. Before we begin, I think it’s important [...]
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Is Banner Blindness a Myth?

By Georgia Otto | Published: 04.10.2009
Banner Blindness is a term which refers to the theory that users ignore page elements that have typical traits of an advertisement. Animation is one trait of advertisements which users have allegedly learned to ignore. However, a 2003 study by Ping Zhang and Nelson Massad for the Ninth Americas Conference on Information Systems shows that: Animation [...]
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Lessons to be Learned from Facebook’s Latest Homepage Changes

By Georgia Otto | Published: 03.17.2009
Normally I don’t post such negative commentary on Locus of Control, but I decided to make an exception this time. Regarding the recent homepage updates on Facebook, I would like to point out a few things that I think we can all learn from. Lesson 1: Don’t lie to your users. Facebook’s preview of the upcoming changes [...]
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Why the “Fold” Doesn’t Matter Anymore

By Georgia Otto | Published: 03.13.2009
At a recent meeting of the NHUPA, Will Powley from Mad*Pow gave a 10-minute presentation called “Newspapers Have Folds, Websites Do Not“. In this presentation, a study by ClickTale was mentioned in support of the notion that the “fold” should no longer be a primary concern for designers.
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Two New Tools for Quick Usability Testing

By Georgia Otto | Published: 03.6.2009
In a previous entry, I discussed the need for better UX design tools. Now, from the makers of OptimalSort, come two new tools for testing the usability of your IA and interface design. Treejack You input a sitemap in the form of a hierarchically structured list and assign tasks for test participants to perform. Participants navigate through the [...]
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Designing Web Forms – Label Placement & Primary vs. Secondary Actions

By Georgia Otto | Published: 02.13.2009
As previously mentioned, user experience practitioners often rely on common sense, convention and past experience when making design decisions. Usability research may seem like overkill, but even when you’re sure of your assumptions, it’s always good to double check. For instance, Luke Wroblewski once wrote an article in which he provided some very sensible guidelines for [...]
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